field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of arusha national park

85 Pages·2002·2.54 MB·English

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H EDOARDO RAZZETTI & CHARLES ANDEKIA MSUYA
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Charles Andekia Msuya is currently Edoardo Razzetti graduated in R (TANZANIA)
a Chief Laboratory Scientist at the Biological Sciences at the University E
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University of Dar es Salaam. He of Pavia (Italy) in 1993. He devotes
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holds a Ph.D in Zoology on the most of his time to the study of I
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ecology of Amphibians and a Full herpetology, including distribution, E
Technological Certificate from the habitat preferences and taxonomy. S
Institute of Science and Technology. He has published over 25 scientific O
He has a long field experience papers and is presently working on F
and conducts field surveys on several zoology research and A
Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and conservation projects with Istituto R
Small Mammals in Tanzania. Oikos, the University of Insubria and U
the University of Pavia. S
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European University of Dar es Salaam T
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Commission (Tanzania) O
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Lombardy Region University of Insubria, P
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(Italy) Varese branch (Italy) R
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Tanzania Istituto Oikos N
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National Parks (Italy and Tanzania) A
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FIELD GUIDE TO THE AMPHIBIANS
AND REPTILES
OF ARUSHA NATIONAL PARK (TANZANIA)
The publication of this book has been made possible through contributions from:
European Commission
Lombardy Region (Italy)
Tanzania National Parks
University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
University of Insubria, Varese branch (Italy)
Istituto Oikos (Italy and Tanzania)
Primary forest on the slopes of Ngurdoto crater.
EDOARDO RAZZETTI & CHARLES ANDEKIA MSUYA
FIELD GUIDE TO THE AMPHIBIANS
AND REPTILES
OF ARUSHA NATIONAL PARK
(TANZANIA)
Acknowledgements:
The study of the amphibian and reptile populations of the Arusha National Park has
been carried out in the framework of the Mount Meru Conservation Project (2000-
2002), a joint effort of the University of Insubria, Varese branch, Tanzania National
Parks (TANAPA) and Istituto Oikos, funded by the European Union. The publication
of this guidebook, that includes the results of two field campaigns, has been possible
thanks also to financial contributions by the Lombardy Region (Italy). The authors are
therefore grateful to all the above mentioned institutions for their support.
They extend especial thank to TANAPAfor granting permission to work in the park, to
Arusha National Park’s staff, for its guidance, cooperation and assistance in the field,
Istituto Oikos and University of Insubria staff for co-ordination and logistic.
We are also grateful to the many people who have contributed to the completion of
this book, and particularly to: Prof. Kim M. Howell for confirming the identifications;
Rossella Rossi for the co-ordination and enthusiastic support; Paola Mariani for
preparing the distribution maps and carrying bags full of venomous snakes in her car;
Paola Codipietro, Valeria Galanti, Silvia Porrini, Cesare Puzzi, Stefania Trasforini and
Archiebald Temu for their assistance during fieldwork; Donald G. Broadley, John
Poynton and Guido Tosi for the invaluable help on the revision of the text and scien-
tific support; Franco Andreone, Michael Lambert, Ronald A. Nussbaum, Jens
Boedtker Rasmussen, Sebastiano Salvidio, Stefano Scali, Roberto Sindaco, Richard
Wahlgren and Martin Whiting for their useful suggestions and the bibliographic mate-
rial, Stephen Spawls and Michele Menegon for providing some of the excellent slides
and finally Josephine Driessen for the editing.
Front cover: Hyperolius viridiflavus
©Copyright 2002 TANAPA
Text by: Edoardo Razzetti and Charles Andekia Msuya
Photography: All photographs by Edoardo Razzetti with the following exceptions:
pages 42 and 47 by Michele Menegon, pages 43, 44, 64 and 70 by
Stephen Spawls.
Maps by: Paola Mariani
All rights reserved - Printed in Varese, Italy
CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Lota Melamari
(Director General Tanzania National Parks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Aim of the booklet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Arusha National Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Arusha National Park amphibians and reptiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Data collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
LISTOF SPECIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Bufo gutturalis (Guttural Toad) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Xenopus muelleri (Mueller’s Clawed Frog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Ptychadena mascareniensis (Mascarene Grass Frog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Rana angolensis (Common River Frog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Strongylopus fasciatus merumontanus (Striped Long-toed Frog) . . . . . . 26
Phrynobatrachus keniensis (Puddle Frog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Hemisus marmoratum (Mottled Shovel-nosed Frog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Kassina senegalensis (Bubbling Kassina) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Hyperolius viridiflavus ommatostictus (Painted Reed Frog) . . . . . . . . . . 34
Hyperolius nasutus (Long Reed Frog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Geochelone pardalis babcocki (Tropical Leopard Tortoise) . . . . . . . . . . 37
Hemidactylus mabouia (Tropical House Gecko) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pachydactylus turneri (Bibron’s Thick-toed Gecko) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Keys for the identification of the chameleons
of Arusha National Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Bradypodion tavetanum (Kilimanjaro Two-horned Chameleon) . . . . . . . 41
Chamaeleo dilepis (Common Flap-necked Chameleon) . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chamaeleo gracilis (Gracile Chameleon) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Chamaeleo rudis (Ruwenzori Side-striped Chameleon) . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chamaeleo jacksonii merumontanus
(Meru Three-horned Chameleon) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Agama agama (Rock Agama) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Mabuya striata (Eastern Striped Skink) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Mabuya varia (Variable Skink) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Lygosoma afrum (Peter’s Writhing-skink) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Panaspis wahlbergii (Wahlberg’s Snake-eyed Skink) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5
Adolfus jacksoni (Jackson’s Forest Lizard) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Nucras boulengeri (Boulenger’s Scrub-lizard ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Leptotyphlops scutifrons merkeri (Merker’s Worm-snake) . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Python natalensis (Southern African Python) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Bitis arietans (Puff Adder) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Elapsoidea loveridgei loveridgei (Loveridge’s Garter Snake) . . . . . . . . . 62
Naja haje (Egyptian Cobra) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dendroaspis angusticeps (Green Mamba) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Lamprophis fuliginosus (Brown House-snake) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Lycophidion capense jacksoni (Jackson’s Wolf-snake) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Psammophis phillipsii (Olive Grass Snake) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Natriciteres olivacea (Olive Marsh-snake) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia (White-lipped Snake) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Thelotornis mossambicanus (Mozambique Twig Snake) . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Dasypeltis scabra (Common Egg-eater) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
OTHER SPECIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHECK LISTOF AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES
ATTHE ARUSHANATIONALPARK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6
FOREWORD
The breathtaking scenery of Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro is not the only rea-
son for visiting Arusha National Park. Rather, the extraordinary quality of the
park lies in the variety of its landscapes and habitats, ranging from open
savannah to montane forests, lakes, marshes and rocky peaks, hosting a
highly diverse wildlife community. Therefore visitors, during their walks
through the park, besides enjoying the view of an elephant roaming in the for-
est, have the possibility to discover the enchanting world of the minor
species: birds, butterflies, frogs, snakes. The Arusha National Parks her-
petofauna seems to be particularly interesting and diverse.
In the last 50 years many species of amphibians throughout the world have
declined markedly in numbers, also within apparently pristine habitats, such
as national parks and nature reserves. Concern is so high that the Species
Survival Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) established the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force
to collect and monitor data on amphibian populations and to assess their
geographic distribution, their decline and possible causes. In order to con-
tribute to this international effort, TANAPA decided to gather updated infor-
mation on the Arusha National Park herpetofauna and to keep monitoring its
populations.
This booklet is the result of the joint effort of two naturalists: Charles Msuya
from the University of Dar es Salaam and Edoardo Razzetti from the
University of Pavia. They have been working within the framework of the
Mount Meru Conservation Project (2000-2002), a joint effort of the University
of Insubria, Varese branch, Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) and Istituto
Oikos, funded by the European Union and aimed at studying and preserving
the Arusha National Park biodiversity. The authors’ competence, commit-
ment and enthusiasm, together with their ability to take beautiful photo-
graphs, resulted in this fine work, that is expected to gently guide visitors into
the fascinating world of amphibians and reptiles, two groups of animals,
which have been on earth so much longer than man.
LOTAMELAMARI
(Director General
Tanzania National Parks)
7

FIELD GUIDE TO THE AMPHIBIANS
AND REPTILES
OF ARUSHA NATIONAL PARK
(TANZANIA)